Bridging the Coverage Gap: Joseph Kitonga’s Mission to Transform Healthcare for Everyday Americans

80 million Americans are stuck in a health care coverage gap. They earn too much for Medicaid, and too little to afford the Cadillac insurance plans offered by big health insurers. That means they miss out on the preventative care that’s so important for long-term health. 

After moving from Kenya to the US with his family at age 13, Joseph Kitonga watched his parents get jobs as care workers and then build their own senior care agency. He saw firsthand that many healthcare workers working with his parents were unable to afford preventative care coverage and instead had to pay costly emergency room bills when they needed treatment. 

So he set out to create a solution that would transform not only the coverage options available, but also the way in which preventative care is delivered to everyday Americans.

Introducing Vitable Health: Employee Health Benefits that Actually Work

Today Joseph is building Vitable Health, a revolutionary health benefits platform that offers a smarter suite of health care solutions with easy access to primary care at the center. 

Traditional health insurance plans prioritize coverage of high-cost but low-probability events, such as heart attacks and traumatic injuries. They’re often very expensive for employers—benefits are the second largest expense for employers after payroll—and force employees to pay high deductibles to qualify for coverage. 

Instead, Vitable is combining concierge primary care and ICHRA administration in one platform, with a focus on improving support for the 70% of healthcare needs that can be addressed through preventative care. The platform includes 1,000 prescription medications and common lab tests for free, and doesn't charge co-pays or deductibles for primary care, allowing members to get the treatment they need without having to worry about the bills. By making high-frequency but low-cost healthcare services free, Vitable is saving employers 14% on total healthcare costs, on average, while also reducing the barrier to quality primary care for everyday Americans. 

Using Vitable, members have been able to reduce appointment wait times from three weeks to under a day, and speak to the physicians they need without copays or deductibles. And they’re valuing the increased accessibility—members are utilizing primary care through Vitable 5x more than they were through traditional providers, while also submitting a 92% Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the experience.

Joseph’s Journey to Vitable Health

Moving from Kenya to inner-city Philadelphia at the age of 13, Joseph watched first-hand as his parents pursued the American dream, first getting jobs as healthcare workers and then starting their own senior care agency. His parents’ agency grew to employ 200 caregivers and support tens of thousands of patients. 

But the experience also exposed Joseph to the reality of corporate-driven American systems, many of which are far from a dream. High deductibles and inflexible policies benefit large insurers, but they leave millions of Americans unable to afford primary care. 

Upon learning that the zip codes of different socioeconomic areas only five miles apart can have a 20 year difference in life expectancy, Joseph knew that he wanted to dedicate his life to providing better healthcare solutions to everyday Americans. 

After receiving the Thiel Fellowship in 2020, he dropped out of college and began developing the initial framework for Vitable Health. He was then accepted to Y Combinator and started turning his vision for Vitable into a reality. 

Joseph set Vitable’s initial focus on the Philadelphia region, aiming to build a deeper network and develop social proof in the region before expanding. And the focus paid off—Vitable gained strong traction in Philadelphia and has recently begun expanding across 35 states (and counting), now covering 100k employees across 600 employers.

Joseph’s Advice to Fellow Founders

Joseph views himself as the ultimate outsider. “I’ve never had a job, and I’m a solo founder. It’s improbable that I’d be able to build something of value,” he explains.  

But the only superpower that really matters, he believes, is being able to build deep empathy for customers. “I’ll sit with every customer and learn more about what’s keeping them up at night,” Joseph says. “As long as you can build something that solves a problem that customers have and are willing to pay for, everything will work out.” 

Failure to put your customers first can be catastrophic for a startup founder, no matter how innovative you are, he believes. “I’ve seen brilliant people build great solutions, but they were disconnected from what customers actually wanted. You don’t have to be visionary if you just listen to customers and build for the problems that they have.”

To learn more about Joseph’s journey, you can follow him on LinkedIn or check out vitablehealth.com